By default, the underlying Windows service (or systemd service on Linux) supporting the M5 Monitor Service is set to startup when the computer is rebooted. If the Start Monitoring After Reboot setting in System Configuration is enabled (which is recommended), the M5 Monitor Service will also automatically start site monitoring services after the computer reboots. This default startup mode is the optimum way to configure the M5 Monitor Service to operate as an unattended system.

 

In some instances, the M5 Monitor Service can startup before the underlying connection to a transceiver is initialized by the operating systems. This is especially true for computers connecting to transceivers via virtual serial port connections. To accommodate for this, the Windows service supporting the M5 Monitor Service has a default startup type of Automatic (Delayed Start) causing it to wait 120 seconds after a computer reboot before it is started.

M5 Monitor Service can also be configured to retry a failed connection to a transceiver after startup. Assuming the default startup mode is configured, specifying a delay period using the Failed Port Connection Retry After setting in System Configuration will cause the M5 Monitor Service to perform the following steps after a system reboot (or whenever the Site Monitor subservice is restarted):

1.Start the related data logging and file submission services.

2.Attempt to open all transceiver communication ports enabled in the configuration.

3.Identify any failed communication ports, signal a Reestablishing Connection state to any connected M5 Control Panel, and wait the specified period to retry connections.

4.When the specified period of time has elapsed, attempt to reconnect failed ports.

5.If all ports reconnect without issue, the previous connection failures generate warning alerts only.

6.If some ports fail to reconnect (or fail to connect the first time with Failed Port Connection Retry disabled), the connection failures are reported as critical alerts and the system will appear to be running in a faulted state. Data collection and processing continues for the other transceiver ports that did not fail. An email containing the critical alerts is sent if the Alert Email Address configuration property is set.

7.If all ports fail to connect or reconnect, the site monitoring, data collection and submission services are stopped, critical alerts are generated and emailed (if the Alert Email Address configuration property is set).

NOTE:  if the M5 Control Panel indicates a M5 Monitor Service is in a pending Reestablish Connection state, selecting Operations > Restart All Services from the menu will force an immediate restart and reconnection to the configured transceivers instead of waiting for the Failed Port Connection Retry period to elapse (a manual way of moving from Step 3 back to Step 1 described above).